A Second Time
by wheezym
Summary: Draco Malfoy goes back in time to escape his fate of being a Death Eater. But what happens when a dark magic time turner and one fatal mistake changes everything? What happens when Harry Potter gets sorted into Slytherin, becomes evil, never meets his friends, and joins forces with Voldemort? Will Malfoy have to be the hero of his own twisted time? DM/HG pre DH
1. Chapter 1: A Seed

((A.N. Hi! So this is my second time attempting fan fic. Please don't be too hard. Haha anyway please tell me what you think! This story is going to have a lot of plot twists and romance and stuff! If you like it please REVIEW! Or if you don't review still! Thanks so much!))

Disclaimer: I do not, under any circumstances, own any part of Harry Potter. All belongs to queen J.K. Rowling.

* * *

"It's beginning. He's rising. And we're getting stronger. And my son gets to join us, join the highest honor. You have it all set for you, Draco."

Lucius' wispy voice wafted through the drawing room of Malfoy Manor like a draft of biting wind. Draco felt it hit him with icy coldness as he took in the information yet again.

_You have it all set for you, Draco._

Draco Malfoy's heart beat in his chest. He fought back something sickening that ached to escape his throat.

On the exterior, Draco was calmly listening to his father with a soft smirk on his face, sitting poised and mature on the leather sofa in the large, darkening room.

No one took extra notice to him because it was always how Draco was, haughtily calm and extremely proud in physical demeanor.

If anyone in the room had taken a closer look at Draco that night, they may have noticed that he was fidgeting a little more than usual for a normal human being. Or that he was looking down frequently at something that was concealed in his pocket. Or that although his face seemed expressionless and calm, his eyes mirrored the eyes of one who was frightened beyond compare.

Draco could hardly see a thing in the room. But he was used to it. It was dark, as always. Although there was a little bit a daylight left outside, the curtains were shut, blocking out all illumination. Two candles were lit in the spacious room on the glass center table. Narcissa Malfoy sat re-lighting them while holding a wine glass in her shaky hand. Lucius was pacing around the large room, the thought of his words still on his lips.

Typical.

It was always like this with his parents. This was "spending time" together. Mostly these sessions were an excuse for Narcissa to sneak more dinner wine and for Lucius to spread information about Voldemort's plans and whatnot.

Draco's heart thumped loud into his ears. His parents were so blissfully unaware, so oblivious to their son and the hatching plots in his witty mind

_...all set for you, Draco_.

No one in the large manor seemed to take a liking to the light of day. It was summer, dark until late, yet the sun's rays had been blocked out, as if the family were a horde of vampires.

It wasn't something peaceful to Draco's mind on the last day of his sixth year. Especially concerning the events previously that week.

All Draco could think about was attending that goddamn funeral, watching and listening to everyone crying and wailing, while he sat like a stone, avoiding Snape's gaze and swallowing the hard rock in his throat.

Because it was all real. Dumbledore was dead.

And his very last words to Draco himself were one's he wished he had listened to at the time. Taken that very crucial moment to understand him and not just be worried about saving his own skin.

But it was too late. Everything was. Draco was getting used to the idea of that.

This year, getting off the Hogwarts Express wasn't as jolly an experience as it was for the previous summer vacations.

The whole train had within it the depressed, forlorn, and mournful emotions of the Hogwarts students. That year had come to a horrible end.

Even Crabbe and Goyle didn't talk as much during the winding ride. Which was rare, even for their bumbling brains.

They patted Draco on the back as goodbye when the train arrived at the platform. No one had come for Draco, as he could Apparate himself back home.

When he arrived at the manor, he remembered servants taking his trunk and telling him dinner would be ready soon. His parents were in the drawing room, drinking pre dinner tea at their usual time.

A seed had been planted into Draco's mind since the death of Hogwarts' headmaster. The seed began to get watered by Draco's conflicting denial of who he wanted to be and his desperate desire to escape. The seed sprouted and Draco formed a plan that he would set into motion that very night.

He acted quickly; he knew his parents were in deep conversation and were unlikely to leave the room until dinner. So, unseen by any servant or maid, Draco had walked up the large staircase to the top level to reach his parent's bedroom.

Luckily for him, no one was around, so he slipped past their doors with ease. He had to search a bit to find what he was looking for. Then he found it, glinting black and sticking out of his mother's jewelry box. He quickly retrieved it and stuffed it into his pocket, then slipped out.

No one knew a thing. Oblivion was comfort for Draco as his heart thumped restlessly. Dinner came, and all ate in silence. The only sentence uttered was Lucuis snide comment about how Hogwarts was "finally going to be a school without a fool running it."

When they finished, they sat in the drawing room and Lucuis explained how Voldemort had expressed how proud he was for Draco and that he has everything set for him.

It was funny, because Draco would have been thrilled at the idea of this fame and honor only a year ago.

But things change. And the year Draco lived, plotting to kill his own headmaster, with his own life on the line showed him something. And he didn't like it.

Now seventeen years old, Draco realized that his family had lived most of their lives in fear. He had not completely understood it until what he was put through. But this time, a member of the Malfoy family was not going to fall pawn to someone else's plan.

Because things were about to change.

Little did anyone know, things were _really _going to be different.

In just a moment.

A minute.

A second.

"Excuse me." Draco said and got up from his seat.

* * *

_Who am I? _

The day's last fleck of sunlight beamed on the bathroom mirror, giving just a little bit of light for Draco to see his reflection.

_I am a coward. _

Outside the dark bathroom, Draco could hear the soft murmuring of his parents; their conversation was more than likely about him.

I am weak.

Draco could just make out the look of sheer terror on his pointed, white face.

_And I am afraid._

And then Draco broke down; he fell to his knees and let hot tears drip down his face. Soon, his whole body was on the cold bathroom floor and he began to shake heavily. This was it, he was about to do this.

The sun set then, taking with it the last ray of sunlight, the last ray of hope.

Draco was in complete darkness laying on the floor of his bathroom. He was not a man. He was not strong. What had he become? Escaping like this? Just a minute ago he was sure of his sprouting seed, but doubt had crept into his mind and planted thoughts around his own.

He staggered to his feet and held on to the counter to steady himself.

_But I know what I want_. He thought to himself. _I want out._

He never asked for this. Everything was planned out for him, for his family. Like they all wanted this.

He couldn't understand anything. He knew he was arrogant, crafty, and smug. But he was not evil.

There were 6 years of Draco's life that changed him forever. In that time he kept within him memories, hopes, and secrets that no one knew about. Under his mask of pure haughtiness, he was easy to penetrate. He was vulnerable. But no one but him saw. And after all those years he could finally admit that to himself. And all he wanted to be was free. But he was made into something else, and he never asked for any of it. He didn't want to support a this; didn't want to have any ugly mark forever burned into his skin, didn't want to live his life like his foolish, scared parents.

He was not a pawn. And he was about to leave everything, leave all of this pain that he was forced to endure. It was time. Soon, nobody would recognize him anymore.

Because nobody really even knew the real Draco Malfoy anyway.

Draco took the the black chained pendant from out of his pocket. For a minute, he just stared at the markings and engravings on the time turner. It was a peculiar object indeed.

_No one knows me. No one understands me. Right? That's why I can leave without them noticing. That's why I stole this dark object. It's my only way out._

A time turner that had been injected with dark magic was nothing to play around with. Especially when you had stolen it from under the nose of a certain dark lord who could kill you in an instant.

Draco was not sure how Voldemort had made it. It looked exactly like a normal time turner, only it was all black. But in it was dark, dark magic, unknown to most wizards; only such a dark wizard as Lord Voldemort could have created such a thing. This could take a wizard both forwards and backwards through time, as many minutes, years, or centuries as they'd like. It could warp the very essence of time, giving the traveller every opportunity to change the very forces of nature.

It was dangerous. And not foolproof either. For all Draco knew, he could be killed trying to go back five minutes in time.

But this was his only hope. A leaf was sprouted onto the seed, and Draco couldn't kill it just yet.

Draco took a deep breath, put the chain around his neck, and turned the hourglass on the pendant over three times, then four, then five, then eight, then he lost track.

Suddenly, the pendant jerked itself out of Draco's fingers and hovered in midair, with the chain still attached to his neck. His eyes widened as the hourglass spun uncontrollably and faster than anything he had ever seen before. His surroundings changed; he began to see flashes of light and dark, figures large and small, faces he did and did not recognize, sound began to blur into a whizzing noise. And soon everything merged together, and Draco couldn't hear, see or feel anything. It was like all of his senses disappeared.

And then everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2: Changing the Past

Draco blinked his eyes. Something blinding was flashing everywhere. He rubbed his eyes and blinked them open.

Bright sunlight streamed directly down on him through the glass window. Draco scrambled up when he realized he was laying flat on his back on his bathroom floor.

He wondered immediately if the time turner had worked. Something had obviously changed, since the night was now day. He spun around and looked at his surroundings.

It all looked a little strange; the decor of the bathroom seemed outdated with different towels and soap trays. Like it was a few years old.

Then looked down at himself and realized something was off. He examined his hands and saw they looked smaller. He looked at his clothes and to his surprise they were not the sweater and jeans he had been wearing, they were school robes.

What time was he in?

He glanced in the mirror and gasped.

Because gasping back, stood an 11 year old Draco Malfoy.

Draco couldn't believe what had happened. He had actually gone back in time.

The time turner had clearly worked but it was odd. Draco didn't know much about time but he knew that the traveller was supposed look the same and there would be a double of himself.

But here, it seemed that Draco had been placed back in his own time, looking the same, but with the 17 year old memories within him. This time turner was completely different from a normal one. Draco wasn't sure what to expect.

He stared at his reflection, the young pale boy. This was him, but it was so unfamiliar compared to the scared face he was used to seeing. This was an innocent Draco.

Well, only on the outside. Seventeen years of his life only to erase six of them.

He walked out of the bathroom into the dining area still in a daze and saw his parents sitting there at the table, eating breakfast food and reading the Daily Prophet.

Both Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy's faces lit up as they saw their son enter the room.

"Draco!"

"My boy!"

He smiled back and looked around.

Draco was surprised to see the thick curtains over the large bay window open and letting in light.

He squinted at the smiling faces of his parents. Now that was even stranger.

The faces of his parents looked decades younger, even though they were really only a few years.

"M-morning." Draco said tentatively and took a seat at the table.

Seconds later, a servant brought him a plate of steaming hot egg on toast, porridge, and a glass of orange juice, his favorite.

Draco stared at the food, not feeling hungry in the least. Instead, he looked around him.

His house had changed since he was a first year. He was so used to everything being dark, light shut out of every corner. But here, light was let in and the house seemed more open, letting colors other than black embed in it.

Draco reminisced that perhaps as times got darker, so did their surroundings.

But speaking of time, what exactly sort if time did Draco land in? He didn't even know the day.

"Um, father, what's the...uh...date?"

Lucius rose an eyebrow and chuckled.

"You don't know?" He boomed. "It's the first! Of September! Your very first day at Hogwarts! How could you forget? You've been talking about this day all summer!"

"Oh uh right." Draco responded.

Narcissa smiled with compassion at her son. "My boy at Hogwarts!" She exclaimed.

She reached out for Draco's hand and squeezed it gently across the table.

Draco held back feelings of disbelief. He found it odd to see his parents without grim expressions or without looking around them with paranoia.

But he remembered that these were less stressful times.

Draco's heart stood still as he remembered further that in this time, Voldemort was dead.  
No more stress for his struggling Death Eater parents. No more fighting for positions and saving their lives. There was no doubt to his parents gleeful dispositions.

Draco looked down at the time turner around his neck. Luckily, no one noticed it since it blended in with his black robes. But he quickly stuffed it under his shirt.

Draco wondered what he would do next. He had not actually planned this far. Truthfully, he had not expected fully for the time turner to work. He was preparing for the worst. So now what? His heart pounded.

He didn't know how he would be able to fix anything by going this far. He barely even had an idea of what time he would actually have to go to change his fate.

He stood as still as a statue, silently contemplating his plans. Nothing seemed like it would work.

"Draco?"

Draco looked up at his mother. "Uh yeah?" he asked.

"Did you hear what your father just said?"

"Oh, yeah, well, actually no sorry, what was it?"

"He said it's time to Apparate so collect your trunk."

"Oh okay."

Draco's trunk lay against the wall in the hallway. He grabbed it and walked over to his parents, who were now standing up.

Draco decided he would play along for now. He knew that as a general rule, time travellers had to act natural because no one could know their true motives or it would warp time. He would play and pretend like it really was his first day of school and when he found time alone, he would use the time turner and travel to a more useful time to his plan.

The beating in his heart slowed as his new plan began to make sense. So doing what he did best, Draco smiled in pretence and held onto the arm of his father.

Quickly, and with a loud crack, the Malfoy family Apparated to King's Cross Station.

* * *

When they arrived, Draco's parents shuffled him swiftly through all the muggles to the entrance to Platform 9 & 3/4.

Draco heard the usual remark from his father about the disgust of muggles as they made their way through. The three made their way to cross the platform but Draco spotted something that made him freeze.

He saw a certain eleven year-old, glasses-clad boy walking around with his trunk and owl, looking confused and scared.

Draco's lip curled. He reveled to see the stupidly strong Harry Potter in such a state. The poor boy had grown up with muggles, he recollected. And he didn't know squat about wizardry. Draco guessed that he had no clue where to get on this mysterious platform. Another thought began to form in his witty brain. He suddenly wondered what would happen if he did something crazy.

Draco quickly turned to his parents.

"Uh well goodbye then. You can leave me here, right?"

Draco's parents looked at him with surprise.

"You don't want us to walk you to the platform?" His mother asked. "It's your first day, after all."

"Yes, but well, I think it'd be better here, you know. It's...uh what all the older kids do. Yeah. Only the scaredy kids walk in with their parents."

Narcissa looked reproachful but Lucius looked at his son with a soft smile.

"Alright then." Lucius said. "Oh its fine Narcissa, he just wants to feel more grown up. Come along. I have ministry business to get to anyway. Well, good day Draco, have an even better year. We'll see you for Christmas."

His father patted him on the back and his mother wrapped her thin arms around him and kissed the top of his head.

He waved them goodbye as they walked away and promised he'd write to them everyday. He watched as his parents walked to a small area and Disapparated away.

Quickly, Draco turned to find Harry Potter. He spotted him near the platform, staring at his ticket in bewilderment. Draco smirked and tugged his trunk along with him to approach the boy.

"Uh, hello?" he said to Harry when he was next to him.

Harry turned around to face him. He looked up and down Draco and saw that he was wearing school robes and had a trunk like his. His face lit up.

"Hello!" he said "Do _you_ know to get to Platform 9 & 3/4?"

Draco almost laughed at the desperation in his voice.

"Yes. It's through there. Yeah, the wall. Look, someone's going through it now. Watch."

The two turned to see a young red-haired boy near the platform look around him, run full speed into the wall, and then disappear.

Harry's green eyes grew wide.

Draco smiled at him. "See, it's easy." he said smugly. "You act like you've never seen magic before."

"Well, I actually haven't. I sort of just found out I was a wizard a few days ago."

Draco rose an eyebrow in pretence. He pretended to notice Harry's lightning shaped scar and gasped.

"You're Harry Potter!" he said with false surprise.

Harry smiled shyly. "Well, yes, I am, but I'm not so sure why that's so great. Everyone keeps telling me it is. But honestly, I have no idea how I did it."

"Well, I cannot believe I am talking to the Boy Who Lived! Incredible! Well, Harry, you've made your first friend. Come on."

He led a much-obliged Harry to the platform and went across to the other side. Soon after, Harry followed.

When they arrived, Harry gasped with the huge train and the mass of witches and wizards surrounding it. He glanced at Draco again.

"Thanks, by the way. I'd probably be lost without your help. What's your name?"

"Draco. Draco Malfoy."

"Well, thanks again Draco."

He smiled at Draco with gratefulness. Draco never thought he'd see the day when the smug Harry Potter would smile at him with friendliness.

He began to wonder if his plan made any sense. Would befriending Harry Potter actually help his case? Suddenly his plan seemed worthless; all the reasons he found for acting on the plan seemed stupid. Draco's heart pounded even more. He had no idea what he was going to do next.

_It's okay. Calm down. The next best thing you can do is find the next moment to slip away and travel to a more convenient time. For now, just play along so no one suspects anything._

Draco was still unsure of what time he could actually transport to that could help him escape his fate. But his thoughts were distracted when Harry nudged him that the train was about to take off.

The two boys scampered onto the train just as it skidded away. All the students said goodbye to their relatives, and the Hogwarts Express set off towards the school. Draco and Harry stowed their trunks away and Draco led Harry down to the back of the train, to the compartment he, Crabbe, and Goyle always sat.

Sure enough, when he entered, there sat his friends and a few other soon-to-be Slytherins. Draco had known Crabbe and Goyle his whole life because of their parents' relations. He greeted them and they made space for him.

When they looked up at Harry in confusion, Draco quickly introduced Harry to them as his new friend.

They all welcomed Harry with more politeness than Draco thought they were capable of and made room for him.

They immediately began to praise him, in awe of his "Boy Who Lived " status. Draco smirked as he realized that this lot were like all other Slytherins, desperate to please the one who had the most power and notoriety.

A large bulk of the train ride became the Slytherins talking to Harry and praising him, like some sort of celebrity. Draco said a word every now and then, but kept to himself some moments.

He caught a few snippets of their conversations. He listened intently when he heard the topic of Sorting into houses come up.

The boys all voiced that they all expected to be in Slytherin, as most of their family was.

Draco saw Harry look derisive. "Isn't Slytherin all full of...dark wizards and all?

Everyone in the compartment turned to look at Harry.

"Wow. Stereotypes." said a Slytherin. Everyone murmured in agreement.

"Oh, he doesn't know anything." Draco piped in defensively. "He's probably been told all sorts of rubbish by some stupid Gryffindor."

He turned to Harry and explained, "Sure, Harry, all dark wizards are from Slytherin, but you can't forget about the good ones."

"Yeah," chimed in Goyle. "Stefan Seffylus was the best Auror anyone's seen, dedicated his life to goodness. And he was from Slytherin."

"Actually, most Aurors are Slytherins. And their whole lives are about catching dark wizards." said Crabbe.

"Most of the Special Service Awards at the school go to the Slytherins." Said another. "And they win the house cup nearly every year."

Harry looked as if he were re-analyzing facts. He nodded in agreement when he realized that perhaps he was stereotyping.

The rest of the ride to the school involved conversations directed towards Harry and the rest of the boys in the compartment repeatedly praising him. Draco thought he saw a bit of arrogance forming in the boy's eyes, but he wasn't sure.

He turned to face the window and began to further contemplate his plan.

* * *

The students arrived in time for supper. They rowed across the lake and walked down the massive hall to be let in to be sorted.

Harry stayed with the group of Slytherins the whole time. When Draco glanced at him, he was taken aback, because something seemed off about him. There was a dangerous glint in the Boy Who Lived's eyes.

The whole group gathered to the Great Hall to be sorted. Draco spotted the Weasley boy and the Mudblood Granger girl.

To Draco, they looked out of place. It seemed odd to not see them and Harry Potter side by side. He remembered with a jolt that they probably hadn't met each other yet, and wouldn't for a while, since Draco had befriended him first.

The sorting began quickly after the hat sang its song. Crabbe, Goyle, and all the other boys from the compartment were called and all sorted into Slytherin. Draco himself was called and sorted into the same house, as expected. Many names were called, but everyone's attention was caught when Harry Potter was called up to be sorted.

Draco almost gasped when he saw Harry saunter over to the stool to be sorted. It was odd; the boy seemed a hell of a lot different.

For one, his expression wasn't the innocent, confused boy's; it was the face of a pompous, famous, and proud boy. Harry looked at the whole room of the Great Hall like he knew he was better then everyone there.

Strangely, Harry looked like a Slytherin.

And like someone had read Draco's mind, Harry Potter was sorted into that exact house.

There was an abrupt outburst of shock. Many people, teachers included, gasped with surprise. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, in _Slytherin_?

On the other hand, the Slytherin table erupted in cheers, welcoming their new member. It was the highest honor for their house to have the infamous Harry Potter, and they all reveled in it.

Who know Slytherins could be so impressionable?

Draco's heart began to thud. What had he done? He had actually changed a part of history; Harry Potter was and never would be in the Gryffindor house again. He wondered if he had made the right choice.

Everything then commenced; the dinner, the excitement, Dumbledore's speech for the new year.

It was like any other year Draco had been at Hogwarts.

Except for the fact that Harry Potter was in the same house as him.

There was that too.

* * *

Draco Malfoy sat on his bed in his dormitory, clutching the time turner in his hand so hard that his hand turned whiter than it was. His heart pounded so loud in his ears he could barely hear his own thoughts.

Draco stressed at the fact of how much he had already changed. Travellers weren't supposed to change much of the natural course of time.

It wasn't too much, but it was something. Harry Potter in Slytherin. Who knew what that could bring?

Draco was still paralyzed when Crabbe and Goyle stumbled in the room to their own beds. He ignored their voiced goodnights and confusion to Draco's state.

Once everyone in the room was asleep, Draco stood up and walked to the window.

The night was dark. The moonlight was slipping away behind clouds, so Draco could hardly see a thing. No stars seemed to dot the sky.

Draco sighed and walked over to his trunk by his bed. He put the time turner in a secret compartment in it.

Then he collapsed onto the floor. He could hear the snoring of the other mindless Slytherins in the room. Stupid pricks didn't even give a care of how much everything had changed. Then again, they didn't know.

Draco's seed had definitely sprouted. But Draco was afraid it was going to turn out into some ugly weed than some beautiful plant.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow morning first thing he would do when he woke up was travel to the time. The time that he would do what he was planning to do.

And change his fate. That was the plan.

That was the plan.

That thought embedded itself into Draco's brain as he drifted off to a dreamless sleep, restless and unsure of the future.

* * *

One room away, the only one awake in his dormitory, was Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the wonderous one, the great.

At least, those were some of his nicknames.

Harry paced around the room in the darkness. He couldn't help the smile forming on his lips.

How could he not? He was Harry Potter, boy extraordinaire, the one everyone loved.

Who knew, him, out of everyone.

Harry sat down on his bed and ran his hands through his thick, messy hair.

_What would Dudley think?_ Harry thought to himself._ Look at me. I'm famous. That bastard will never have the last word anymore. No one in that goddamn family will._

No one in Harry's entire Slytherin house showed him anything short of praise. But it was no surprise, being who he was. And now he was a Slytherin. A perfect, pureblood, high honor Slytherin. Just where someone like Harry Potter should be.

Dripping with exhaustion, Harry climbed in under the covers of his bed. He smiled with the thought of classes tomorrow. Oh, so many things to learn.

And so many people who would practically bow down to him.

Harry had a feeling it was going to be a great year.

* * *

((A.N. Like it? Hate it? Review!))


End file.
